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CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICIVIH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes/Notes  techniques  et  bibiiographiques 


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t( 


The  institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best 
original  copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this 
copy  whicki  may  be  bibliographicaily  unique, 
which  may  alter  any  of  the  images  in  the 
reproduction,  or  which  may  significantly  change 
the  usual  method  of  filming,  are  checked  below. 


n 


D 


n 


Coloured  covers/ 
Couverture  de  couieur 


I      I    Covers  damaged/ 


Couverture  endommagde 

Covers  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Couverture  restaurde  et/ou  peiiicuide 

Cover  title  missing/ 

Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

Coloured  maps/ 

Cartes  gdographiques  en  couieur 

Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)/ 
Encre  de  couieur  (i.e.  autre  que  bieue  ou  noire) 


I      I    Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations/ 


Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couieur 


Bound  with  other  material/ 
Reii6  avec  d'autres  documents 


Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin/ 

La  reliure  serr6e  peut  causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la 
distortion  le  long  de  la  marge  intirieure 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restoration  may 
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mats,  lorsque  cela  dtait  possible,  ces  pages  n'ont 
pas  6t6  filmies. 

Additional  comments:/ 
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qu'il  lui  a  6t6  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details 
de  cet  exemplaire  qui  sont  peut-dtre  uniques  du 
point  de  vue  bibllographlque,  qui  peuvent  modifier 
une  image  reproduite,  ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une 
modification  dans  la  m6thode  normale  de  filmage 
sont  Indiqu6s  ci-dessous. 


I      I   Coloured  pages/ 


Pages  de  couieur 

Pages  damaged/ 
Pages  endommagdes 

Pages  restored  and/oi 

Pages  restaurdes  et/ou  pelliculdes 

Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxec 
Pages  d6color6es,  tachetdes  ou  piqudes 


|~~|    Pages  damaged/ 

I      I    Pages  restored  and/or  laminated/ 

r^    Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 


□Pages  detached/ 
Pages  ddtachdes 

0Showthrough/ 
Transparence 

I      I    Quality  of  print  varies/ 


D 


Quality  indgaie  de  I'impression 

includes  supplementary  material/ 
Comprend  du  matdriel  suppidmentaire 

Only  edition  available/ 
Seule  Edition  disponible 


Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refiimed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Les  pages  totalement  ou  partieliement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata,  une  peiure, 
etc.,  ont  6t6  filmdes  i  nouveau  de  fapon  d 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 


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This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ca  document  est  filmd  au  taux  de  reduction  indiqu6  ci-dessous. 

18X  22X 


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26X 


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32X 


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Stalls 
s  du 
lodifier 
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Image 


The  copy  filmed  here  has  been  reproduced  thanks 
to  the  generosity  of: 

Harold  Campbell  Vaughan  Memorial  Library 
Acadia  University 


The  images  appearing  here  are  the  best  quality 
possible  considering  the  condition  and  legibility 
of  the  original  copy  and  in  keeping  with  the 
filming  contract  specifications. 


Original  copies  in  printed  paper  covers  are  filmed 
beginning  with  the  front  cover  and  ending  on 
the  last  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, or  the  back  cover  when  appropriate.  All 
other  original  copies  are  filmed  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, and  ending  on  the  last  page  with  a  printed 
or  illustrated  impression. 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  —^-(meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  V  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 

Maps,  plates,  charts,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diagrams  illustrate  the 
method: 


L'exemplaire  filTi^  fut  reproduit  grdce  d  la 
g6ndrosit6  de: 

Harold  Campbell  Vaughan  Memorial  Library 

Acadia  University 


Les  images  suivantes  ont  6t6  reproduites  avec  le 
plus  grand  soin,  compte  tenu  de  la  condition  et 
de  la  nettetd  de  l'exemplaire  filmd,  et  en 
conformity  avec  les  conditions  du  contrat  de 
filmage. 

Les  exemplaires  originaux  dont  la  couverture  en 
papier  est  imprimde  sont  filmds  en  commen^ant 
par  le  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  le  second 
plat,  selon  le  cas.  Tous  les  autres  exemplaires 
originaux  sont  filmds  en  commenpant  par  la 
premidre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 

Un  des  symboles  suivants  apparaitra  sur  la 
dernidre  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  le  symbole  — ^  signifie  "A  SUIVRE".  le 
symbole  V  signifie  "FIN". 

Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  dtre 
filmds  d  de&  taux  de  reduction  diffdrents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  dtre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  clichd,  il  est  film6  d  partir 
de  Tangle  supdrieur  gauche,  de  gauche  d  droite, 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  ndcessalre.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrent  la  mdthode. 


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■iViV 


SIS' 

Points  of  Contact  between    t)®* 
Science  and  Revelation 


i> 


./:■ 


^■ 


PRINCIPAL  DAWSON, SXJ>,  F.R.S. 


MONTREAL 


Article   No.   Seventeen 


FROM   THE 


PRINCETON    REVIEW 


PRICE,    FIVE    CENTS 


■■'■^± 


1  IIM 


PRINCETON    REVIEW 


.1 


Fur    NOA' ember.    1879. 


PROFESSOR     IIUXLKVS    KXI'OSlTloX    OF     HUME'S     PHILOSOPHY. 
President  PORTER,   D.D.,  LL.D.,  Yale  College. 

UNIVERSITY     gUESTK/XS      I\     ENGLAND.       GOLOWIN    SMITH.    D.C.L.. 
Toronto. 

PROFESSOR     TYN'DALL     UPON     THi:     ORIGIN     OF    THE    COSMOS. 
MARK  HOPKINS,  Ex-President  of  Williams  College. 

COMPARATIVE      VIEW      OF      AMERICAN      PROGRESS.  ROBERT    P. 

PORTER.    Esq.,    Chicago. 

THE    A    I'RIORI    NOVUM    ORGANU.M    OF   CHRISTIANITY.      LYMAN   H. 
ATWATER.  D.D.,  LL.D..  Princeton  College. 

BIMETALLISM.      Prof.  WILLIAM  G.  SUMNER,  Yale  College. 

POINTS    OF    CONTACT     BETWEEN     SCIENCE    AND     REVELATION. 
Principal  J,  W.   DAWSON,  D.C.L..  F.R.S.,  Montreal. 

HERBERT    SPENCERS    "DATA    OF     ETHICS."      President   McCOSH,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  Princeton  College. 


TuK  Rkvikw  is  published  binmnthly,  at  /r.'c  dollars  a  yciV%  or  thirly-fivc  cents 
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The  object  is  to  present,  to  the  largest  number  (A  intelligent  readers,  articles 
entirelv  original,  of  the  highest  (jrder  and  timeliness,  from  the  best  minds  of  this 
country  and  Europe,  treating  of  the  most  interesting  phases  of  thought  in  The- 
ology, Philosophy,  Politics,  Science,  Literature,  and  Art. 

Remittances  should  be  addressed  to  the 

PRINCETON    REVIEW, 
NEW   YORK. 


■"™*««J 


r 


POINTS    OF    CONTACT    RETWEEN    SCIENCE    AND 

REVELATION. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

T^riE  subject  of  this  paper  docs  not  lie  in  the  field  of  that 
J-  "conflict  of  science  and  religion"  in  which  so  many  theolo- 
gians and  philosophers  of  our  time  seem  to  think  that  no  quarter 
should  be  given.  It  relates  to  those  points,  not  few  or  unim- 
portant, in  which  modern  scientific  investigation  has  come  into 
peaceful  contact  with  the  re\'ca!ed  Word  of  God  as  held  by 
Christians,  and  has  proved  itself  in  harmony  therewith,  or  has 
illustrated  points  previously  obscure  to  reason,  if  held  as  dogmas 
by  faith.  There  is  perhaps  the  more  necessity  to  refer  to  such 
points  of  contact,  that  many  of  them  lie  out  of  tne  way  of  ordi- 
nary students  of  nature  or  of  the  Bible,  and  that  they  are  so 
likely  to  be  overlooked  amid  the  noise  and  struggle  that  arise 
from  seeming  contradictions. 

That  profound  thinkers  should  sometimes  arrive  at  truths,  as 
matters  of  speculation,  which  others  may  reach  by  thc'slower  pro- 
cesses of  observation,  experiment  or  calculation,  is  not  surprising, 
and  has  often  been  realized.  Nor  is  it  more  wonderful  that  men 
raised  to  a  high  degree  of  inspiration  and  of  prophetic  insight 
should,  in  some  degree,  anticipate  our  scientific  discoveries,  more 
especially  in  points  where  natural  things  present  analogies  with 
the  supernatural  or  spiritual.  In  illustration  of  such  coinci- 
dences, 1  may  first  refer  to  a  question  which  perhaps  rather 
relates  to  the  sagacious  insight  of  men  in  general  in  very  ancient 
times  than  to  anything  properly  of  the  nature  of  revelation. 

A  subject  at  present  of  considerable  scientific  interest  is  the 
connection  of  spots  on  the  surface  of  the  sun  with  famines  and 


iTTn 


58o 


THE  PRINCETON  REVIEW. 


Other  calamities.  Observation  has  shown  that  in  the  course  of 
every  pcriofl  of  about  eleven  years  the  sun's  surface  is  affected 
by  what  has  been  called  "  a  wave  of  sun-spots."  When  these 
spots  are  at  a  minimum,  for  a  year  or  so  the  sun  may  show 
scarcely  any  dark  spots.  In  the  course  of  four  or  five  years 
they  increase  in  number  until  they  attain  a  maximum,  and  then 
diminish,  returning  to  their  minimum  in  about  eleven  years. 
The  intensity  of  the  maxima  and  minima  are  nut  quite  the  same 
in  succeeding  cycles,  appearing  to  culminate  in  ueriods  of  about 
fifty-five  )'ears. 

Now  it  seems  that  the  more  the  spots  increase  the  hotter  the 
sun  becomes,  and  the  fewer  the  spots  the  cooler.  The  differ- 
ence is  sufficient  to  cause  a  perceptible  rise  and  fall  in  the  waters 
of  our  great  lakes,  and  notable  differences  in  the  dryness  or  wet- 
ness of  successive  seasons,  though  the  precise  effects  vary  much 
with  local  conditions.  Thus  in  1879,  '^  year  of  minimum  sun- 
spots,  the  summer  has  been  disastrously  wet  and  cold  in  Western 
Europe,  cooler  and  more  moist  than  usual  in  Eastern  America, 
and  characterized  by  severe  drought  in  some  southern  climates, 
all  this  apparen*-ly  depending  upon  a  diminished  supply  of  solar 
heat.  But  floods  and  droughts  bring  failures  of  crops  and  fam- 
ines, and  thus  bring  diminished  trade  and  financial  crises,  while 
these  last  in  turn  produce  political  and  social  revolutions.  Of 
course  all  these  influences  may  locally  be  counteracted  in  whole 
or  in  part  b)'  other  causes ;  but  it  would  seem  that  about  every 
eleventh  year  we  are  to  anticipate  some  aggravation  of  the  gen- 
eral struggle  for  existence,  owing  to  a  diminution  of  the  power 
of  the  great  central  heater  and  lighter  of  our  system. 

But  again,  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  periodicity 
of  sun-spots  is  determined  by  the  attraction  of  the  planets,  and 
more  especially  of  the  greatest  of  them,  Jupiter,  whose  nearest 
approach  to  the  sun  in  his  annual  revolution,s  of  between  eleven 
and  twelve  years  coincides  with  the  maximum  of  sun-spots,  but 
may  be  influenced  in  this  by  the  positions  of  the  other  planets. 
Thus  the  planets,  and  more  particularly  Jupiter,  exercise  an  im- 
portant influence  on  human  affairs.  That  they  have  this  power 
seems  to  have  been  discovered  so  long  ago  that  the  astrological 
ideas  based  upon  the  fact  can  be  traced  back  to  the  oldest  Chal- 
dean literary  monuments,  of  a  date  nearly  as  far  back  as  that  of 


CONTACT  BETWEEN   SC/E.VCE  AND  REVELATION. 


58t 


the  deluge  of  Noah.  Indications  of  this  beh'ef  are  thought  by 
some  to  exist  even  in  the  Bible,  as  in  the  expression  in  the  Song 
of  Deborah,  "  The  stars  in  their  courses  fought  against  Sisera." 
It  must,  however,  be  admitted  that  the  Bible  decidedly  opposes 
astrological  divination,  as  connected  with  idolatry;  and  justly 
so,  since  the  observed  facts  do  not  yet  warrant  any  very  definite 
predictions,  and  they  were  at  a  very  early  period  made  subser- 
vient to  imposture  and  superstition.  Still,  when  we  see  that 
such  men  as  Lockycr,  Tiazzi  Smith,  IVIcldrum,  and  many  other 
astronomers  and  physicists,  repose  faith  in  the  connection  of 
sun-spots  with  sublunary  events,  we  cannot  any  longer  laugh  at 
the  Chaldean  astrcjlogy.  or  even  at  the  poetical  fancy  of  the  old 
"  Mother  in  Israel,"  which  might  be  literally  true,  if  Sisera's 
campaign  was  in  any  way  determined  either  by  the  attitude  of 
the  planets  or  by  his  belief  in  their  influence,  or  even  if  the  flood 
of  the  Kishon,  which  cut  off  his  retreat,  was  aggravated  by  planet- 
ary influence. 

Such  a  fact  as  that  above  referred  to  may  have  other  bear- 
ings.  It  is  obvious  that  by  relegating  changes  of  the  seasons  to 
cycles  determined  by  natural  law,  it  cuts  awa)'  the  ground  from 
certain  astrological  superstitions  and  Sabean  idolatries  of  the 
ancient  world.  On  the  other  hand,  it  seems  to  remove  famines 
or  droughts  or  floods  from  the  domain  of  special  providence  or 
of  direct  divine  intervention,  ^'et  it  is  remarkable  that  it  still 
leaves  scope  even  for  miracle.  Our  knowledge  of  these  cycles  is 
too  limited  to  enable  us  to  predict  their  precise  effects,  while 
their  complication  with  longer  cycles  on  the  one  hand,  and  with 
local  causes  on  the  other,  makes  the  result  for  any  one  year  or 
place  too  complex  to  be  certainly  worked  out,  and  gives  infinite 
variety  to  their  operation.  If,  for  example,  we  should  discover 
that  the  three  years  of  drought  in  the  time  of  Ahab  coincided 
with  a  period  of  minimum  or  maximum  of  sun-spots,  though 
this  would  enable  us  better  to  understand  the  method  employed 
to  punish  the  idolatrous  Israelites  through  the  agency  of  their 
adopted  sun-god,  it  would  not  account  for  the  special  local  ag- 
gravation of  the  calamity  and  its  coincidence  with  a  certain  con- 
dition of  the  nation.  It  would  not,  therefore,  deprive  the  visita- 
tion.of  its  character  of  a  predetermined  punishment  wrought  by 
the  hand  of  God. 
38 


S8a 


THE   PRI.WKIOX   REVIKIV. 


This  is,  however,  but  a  very  slender  point  of  contact,  both 
because  we  know  as  yet  little  from  science  as  to  the  matter  re- 
ferred to,  and  because  the  Rible  docs  not  deal  in  astrolo^^y. 
There  are  others  more  marked,  and  we  may  now  proceed  to  con- 
sider a  few  of  them,  more  especially  some  of  those  which  relate 
to  the  earlier  periods  treated  of  in  the  record  of  divine  revela- 
tion. 

EDEN. 

Perhaps  no  portion  of  Bible  history  seems  to  have  been 
more  thoroughly  set  at  naught  by  modern  scientific  specula- 
tions than  the  golden  age  of  Eden,  so  dear  to  the  imagination 
of  the  poet,  so  interwoven  with  the  past  condition  and  future 
prospects  of  man,  as  held  by  all  religions.  We  are  now  invited 
to  regard  as  our  first  ancestors  certain  dumb  and  semi-brutal 
descendants  of  apes,  slowly  rising  amidst  a  struggle  for  exist-, 
ence,  through  successive  stages  of  filth,  savagery,  bloodshed, 
and  misery,  into  the  condition  of  such  humanity  as  we  see  to- 
day in  the  lowest  tribes  of  men.  So  much  the  worse,  probably, 
for  the  speculations  in  question ;  because  they  not  only  outrage 
our  feelings,  but  contravene  all  natural  probability  in  their  fr  n- 
cied  pedigree  of  man.  On  the  other  hand,  it  can  easily  oe 
shown  that  there  are  important  points  of  agreement  between 
the  simple  story  of  Eden,  as  we  have  it  in  Genesis,  and  scientific 
probabilities  as  to  the  origin  of  man.  Let  us  glance  at  these 
probabilities. 

It  seems  plain  that  the  condition  of  our  earth,  in  all  those 
long  periods  when  it  was  inhabited  by  inferior  animals  only,  was 
unsuitable  for  man.  We  do  not  expect  to  find  remains  of  men 
in  the  formations  ct  the  Palaeozoic,  Mesozoic,  or  early  Tertiary 
ages.  Man  is  thus  a  recent  animal  in  our  world.  Now,  under 
any  hypothesis  as  to  his  origin,  the  external  conditions  must 
have  been-  suitable  to  him  before  he  could  appear.  If,  to  use 
the  language  of  evolutionary  philosophy,  he  was  himself  the  pro- 
duct of  the  environment  acting  on  the  nature  of  a  lower  animal, 
this  would  be  all  the  more  necessary.  Further,  it  would  be  alto- 
gether improbable  that  these  favorable  conditions  should  prevail 
at  one  time  over  the  whole  world.  They  must,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  have  prevailed  only  in  some  particular  region,  the  special 


coxv.h'/-  ni/iw//:\  sci/wcr:  Axn  h'i:\-r:r..\riox. 


5Sj 


"centre  of  creation  "  of  man,  and  this,  whether  its  conditions 
arose  by  chance,  as  certain  theorists  would  have  us  hcheve,  or 
were  divinely  ordained,  must  ha\e  been  to  thi  first  men  the 
Eden  where  thev  couiiV  ;ui)sist  safeK-  when  few,  ami  whence 
they  could  extend  themselves  as  they  increased  in  numbers. 
There  is,  therefore,  in  science  nothin^r  inconsistent  with  the 
Scripture  statement  that  God  "  prepared  a  place  for  man." 

[•"urther,  no  one  supposes  that  man  appeared  at  first  with 
weapons,  armor,  and  arts  full-blown,  lie  must  have  commenced 
his  career  nakctl,  destitute  of  we.ipons  and  clothinj^,  and  with 
only  such  capacities  for  obtaining-  food  as  his  hands  and  feet 
could  _t,dve  him.  For  such  a  bciii;^  it  was  absolutely  necessary 
that  the  rej^non  of  his  debut  should  furnish  him  with  suitable 
food,  and  should  not  task  his  resources  as  to  shelter  from  cold 
or  as  to  defence  from  wild  animals.  The  statements  in  Genesis 
that  it  was  a  "  i^arden,"  th.it  is,  a  locality  se[)arated  in  some  way 
from  the  uninhabited  wiklern^'ss  around  ;  that  it  was  stocked  with 
trees  pleasant  tt)  the  siL;ht  and  <;ood  for  food  ;  and  that  man  was 
placed  therein  naked  and  destitute  of  all  the  arts  of  life,  to  sub- 
sist on  the  spontaneous  fruits  of  the  earth,  are  thus  perfectly  in 
accordance  with  the  reciuircincnts  of  the  case. 

If  we  inquire  as  to  the  portion  of  the  world  in  which  man  at 
first  appeared,  the  theory  of  ex  (ijiilion  ad\'ises  us  to  look  at  those 
regions  of  the  workl  in  which  the  lowest  types  of  men  now  exist 
or  recently  existed,  as  Tasmafiia,  Tierra  del  Fuego,  and  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope,  or  it  assures  us  that  those  tropical  jungles  which 
now  afford  congenial  haunts  for  anthropoid  apes,  but  are  most 
unsuitable  for  the  higher  races  of  men,  are  the  regions  most 
likely  to  have  witnessed  the  origin  tjf  man.  Ikit  this  is  mani- 
festly absurd,  since,  in  the  case  of  any  species,  we  should  expect 
that  it  vould  originate  where  the  conditions  are  most  favorable 
to  the  existence  of  that  species,  and  not  in  those  regions  where, 
as  shown  by  the  result,  it  can  scarcely  exist  when  introduced. 
We  should  look  for  the  centre  whence  men  have  spread,  to  those 
regions  in  which  they  can  most  easily  live  and  in  which  they  have 
most  multiplied  and  prospered.  In  historical  times  these  indica- 
tions, and  also  those  of  tradition,  arclueology,  and  affiliation  of 
languages  and  races,  point  to  Western  Asia  as  the  cradle  of  man. 
Even  Haeckel  in  his  "  History  of  Creation,"  though  it  is  convc- 


5*4 


nil:    PKlNCF.rOX  REVIEW, 


nicnt,  in  connection  with  his  theoretical  views,  to  assume  the 
firigin  of  man  in  a  region  somewhere  in  the  Indian  Ocean  and 
now  submerged,  traces  all  his  lines  of  affiliation  back  to  the 
vicinity  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  districts 
to  which  the  Bible  history  restricts  the  site  of  Eden. 

Again,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that,  at  the  fall  of  man, 
climatic  or  other  changes,  expressed  by  the  "  cursing  of  the 
ground,"  occurred,  and  that  In  the  Edenic  system  of  things  very 
large  portions  of  the  earth  were  to  be  or  become  suitable  to  the 
happy  residence  of  man.  Geology  makes  us  familiar  with  the 
fact  tlfat  such  changes  have  occurred  in  the  later  half  of  the 
Tertiary  period,  to  such  an  extent  that  at  one  time  the  plants  of 
warm  temperate  regions  could  flourish  in  Spitzbcrgen,  and  at 
another  ice  and  snow  covered  the  land  far  into  temperate  lati- 
tudes. Farther,  it  would  seem  that  the  oldest  men  known  to  us 
by  archjEological  discoveries,  probably  equivalent  to  the  Antedi- 
luvians, lived  at  a  time  of  somewhat  rough  and  rigorous  climate, 
and  which  probably  succeeded  a  more  favorable  period  in  which 
man  appeared. 

Thus  it  would  seem  that  we  are  not  under  any  scientific  ne- 
cessity to  give  up  the  old  and  beautiful  story  of  Eden,  and  that, 
on  the  contrary,  this  better  accords  with  the  probabilities  as  to 
the  origin  of  man  than  do  those  hypotheses  of  his  derivation 
which  have  been  avowedly  founded  on  scientific  considerations. 


TIME-WORLDS. 

When  we  speak  of  the  world  or  the  universe,  the  ordinary 
hearer  perhaps  has  before  his  mind  merely  the  idea  of  bodies  oc- 
curring in  space,  and  the  vast  discoveries  of  modern  times  as  to 
the  distances  and  magnitudes  of  the  heavenly  bodies  have  con- 
tributed to  fill  the  minds  of  men  with  conceptions  of  the  immen- 
sity of  spacp,  perhaps  to  the  exclusion  of  another  direction  of 
thought  equally  important.  Worlds  must  exist  in  time  as  well 
as  in  space.  This  idea  is  very  familiar  to  the  mind  of  the  geolo- 
gist, who  traces  the  long  history  of  the  earth  through  successive 
periods,  and  also  knows  that  each  succeeding  day  has  seen  it  dif- 
ferent from  the  previous  ones.  This  consideration  is  also  before 
the  mind  of  the  physical  astronomer,  who  thinks  of  suns  and 


coxTACj'  n/y/u/j'X  scir.xc/'  Axn  A'f:r/: /.at/ox.     585 


■•     V. 


planets  as  passin;^  throii^fh  iliffercnt  successive  conditions,  ami 
as  actually  presenting  different  sta^a;s  in  the  present. 

'riiis  point  is  curiously  illustrated  b)'  a  controversy  which 
ra^ed  some  time  ago  as  tf)  whether  the  planets  and  other 
hcaveiil)'  Ijodies  may  be  inhabited  worlds,  and  especially  whether 
they  may  be  inhabited  by  rational  beinj^s. 

If  we  look  at  this  question  with  reference  to  our  own  world, 
we  shall  find  that  its  existence  as  a  vaporous  mass,  as  a  heated 
molten  j,dobe,  as  the  abode  of  merely  inferior  animals,  has  been 
of  vast  duration  as  compared  with  the  time  in  which  it  has  been 
inhabited  by  man.  l''arther,  it  is  gradually  approaching  to  a 
condition  in  which  it  will  no  longer  be  habiiable,  and  unless  some 
renovating  process  shall  be  ap[)lied  to  it,  this  desolate  condition 
may  be  of  indefinite  duration.  Thus,  if  we  imagine  ourselves  to 
be  beings  not  limited  by  time,  and  that  we  could  visit  the  earth 
by  chance  at  anj- period  of  its  liistory,  the  chances  >  ..uld  be 
vastly  against  our  seeing  it  at  that  precise  period  of  its  existence 
in  which  it  is/ fitted  for  the  Residence  of  rational  beings.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  we  were  capable  of  taking  in  its  who'r  duration, 
We  would  comprehend  that  it  has  its  particular  -stage  for  being 
the  abode  of  inic-iigence,  and  that  it  has  a  definite  and  i>ile!li- 
gible  h'  tory  as  a  world  in  time,  which  i.iay  be  n^ore  wr  less 
parallel  to  that  of  all  other  worlds. 

This  truth  also  appears  if  we  consider  other  planetary  bodies. 
The  moon  may  have  been  inhabited  at  a  time  when  our  earth 
was  luminous  and  incandescent,  but  it  has  passed  into  a  state  of 
senility  and  desolation.  The  planet  Mars,  which  seems  physi- 
cally not  unlike  the  earth,  may  be  in  a  condition  similar  to  that 
of  our  world  in  the  older  geological  periods.  Jupiter  and  Saturn 
are  probably  still  intensely  heated  and  encompassed  with  a  va- 
porous "  deep,"  and  may  perhaps  aid  in  supporting  life  on  their 
satellites,  while  untold  ages  must  elapse  before  these  magnificent 
orbs  can  arrive  at  a  stage  suitable  for  maintaining  life  like  that 
on  the  earth.  But  after  all  these  ages  have  passed,  and  when  all 
the  planets  have  grown  old  and  lifeless,  the  sun  itself,  now  a  fiery 
mass,  may  have  arrived  at  a  condition  suited  for  living  and  ra- 
tional beings. 

Thus  the  physical  conditions  of  our  planetary  system  teach 
that  if  we  suppose  all  worlds  capable  of  supporting  life,  all  are 


Il 


586 


77//;  rA'/.vcE  jv.v  K/-:  i  v/-;  // ' 


not  so  at  one  time,  and  that,  as  ages  pass,  cacli  may  successfully 
take  up  tliis  ro/f,  of  which  in  greater  or  less  degree  all  may  at 
some  time  or  other  be  capable.  So  when  we  ascend  to  the 
starry  orbs,  these  suns  may  have  attendant  worlds,  some  In  one 
stage,  some  in  another.  There  may  also  be  stars  and  nebulai 
still  scarcely  formed,  and  others  which  have  passed  far  beyond 
the  present  state  of  our  sun  and  its  planets.  Thus  the  universe 
is  a  vastly  varied  and  progressive  scene.  At  no  one  time  can  all 
worlds  be  seats  of  life,  but  of  the  countless  suns  and  worlds  that 
exist,  thousands  or  millions  may  at  any  one  time  be  in  this 
state,  while  thousands  of  times  as  many  may  be  gradually  arriv- 
ing at  it  or  passing  from  it.  Such  are  the  thoughts  which  neces- 
sarily arise    in   our  minds   when  we  consider   the   existence    of 

worlds  in  time. 

Now  these  ideas  are  very  old,  and  they  impressed  themselves 
on  the  mind  of  antiquity  before  men  could  measure  the  vastness 
of  the  universe  in  space  ;  and  it  is  necessary  to  have  them  before 
our  minds  if  we  would  enter  into  the  thoughts  of  the  writers  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  when  they  treat  of  time  and 
eternity.  The  several  stages  of  the  earth  in  its  progress  from 
chao-,  the  prophetic  pictures  of  its  changes  in  the  future,  alike 
embody  the  idea  of  time-worlds.  It  is  in  this  aspect  that  the 
universe  is  compared  to  a  vesture  of  God,  which  he  can  change 
as  a  garment,  while  he  himself  remains  ever  the  same.  It  is  in 
contrast  to  the  eternity  of  truth  that  the  heavens  and  earth  are 
said  to  be  passing  away,  but  the  words  of  the  Redeemer  shall 
never  pass  away.  It  is  with  the  same  reference  that  we  are  told 
that  "  the  things  which  are  seen  are  temporal,  the  things  which 
are  unseen  are  eternal." 

The  use  made  of  the  Hebrew  word  c>/,vu  and  the  Greek  an>// 
in  the  sense  of  age.  or  even  of  eternity,  brings  before  us  still 
more  clearly  the  biblical  idea  of  time-worlds.  In  that  sublime 
"prayer  of  Moses  the  man  of  God"  which  we  have  in  the 
90th  Psalm,  God,  who  is  the  "  dwelhng-place  of  man  in  genera- 
tion to  generation."  who  existed  before  the  mountains  were 
brought  forth,  with  whom  a  thousand  years  are  "  as  a  watch  in 
the  night,"  is  said  to  be  from  "  olam  to  olam,"  from  "  everlasting 
to  cvLTlastin^.r••  as  the  authorized  version  has  it,  but  more  prop- 
erly froiu  r-..'  to  age   of  those   long  cosmic   ages  in   which   he 


COXTACT  BETWEEX  SCIEXCE  AND  KEVELATION.        587 

creates  and  furnishes  successive  worlds.  So  vhen  God  is  said  to 
"  inhabit  eternity,"  '  it  is  not  abstract  eternity  but  these  succes- 
sive olams,  or  time-worlds,  which  are  his  habitation.  In  the  Old 
Testament,  God,  as  revealed  to  us  in  his  works,  dwells  in  the 
Ljrand  succession  of  worlds  in  time,  thus  continuously  and  vari- 
ously manifestin<r  his  power,  a  much  more  living  and  attractive 
view  of  divinity  than  the  mere  abstract  affirmation  of  eternity. 

The  same  thought  is  taken  up  and  amplified  in  the  New 
Testament.  The  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  who  is 
most  deeply  imbued  with  the  Old  Testament  lore,  speaks  of 
Christ  as  God's  Son,  "whom  he  hath  appointed  heir  of  all 
things,  by  whom  also  he  made  the  worlds,"  more  literally  "con- 
stituted the  aions."  He  does  not  refer,  as  one  might  conceive 
froni  the  English  translation,  to  different  worlds  in  space,  but  to 
the  successive  ages  of  this  world,  in  which  it  was  being  gradu- 
ally prepared  and  fitted  up  for  man.  .So  Paul,  in  his  doxology 
at  the  end  of  the  third  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians, 
ascribes  to  the  Redeemer  glor)-  in  "  all  generations  of  the  time- 
worlds,"  and  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  same  chapter  he  speaks 
of  "  God's  mystery,  hid  from  the  beginning  of  the  ages  or  time- 
worlds,  and  now  made  known  in  Christ,  by  whom  also  he 
created  all  things."  So,  also,  in  the  eleventh  chapter  of  Hebrews 
we  are  told  that  by  faith  we  understand  that  "  the  ages  or  time- 
worlds  were  constituted  by  the  word  of  God."  Another  fine 
illustration  of  this  idea  is  in  Paul's  familiar  and  business-like 
letter  to  Titus,  where  he  says  that  he  lives  "  in  hope  of  eternal 
life,  which  God,  who  cannot  lie,  promised  before  the  world 
began,  but  hath  in  due  time  manifested  his  word."  The  ex- 
pression "the  world  began"  here  represents  the  "ages  of  time," 
and  the  "eternal  life"  i«;  the  "life  of  the  ages."  Thus,  what  the 
apostle  hopes  for  is  life  through  the  unlimited  ages  of  God's 
working,  and  this  life  has  been  promised,  before  the  beginning 
of  the  time-worlds  oj  creation.  So  the  whole  past,  present,  and 
future  of  God's  working  has  its  relation  to  us,  is  included  under 
this  remarkable  idea  of  ages  or  time-worlds,  and  is  appropriated 
by  faith  and  hope  as  the  possession  of  God's  people.  God,  who 
cannot  lie,  has  pledged  himself  to  us  from  the  beginning  of  those 

'  Isaiah  56  :  15. 


588 


THE   nUXCETON  REVIEW. 


long  geologic  ages  in  which  he  founded  the  earth ;  he  has 
promised  us  his  favor  in  all  the  course  of  his  subsequent  work; 
he  has  sealed  this  promise  in  the  mission  of  his  Son,  that  same 
glorious  Being  through  whom  he  arranged  all  those  vast  ages  of 
creation  and  providence,  and  in  the  strength  of  this  promise  we 
can  look  forward  by  faith  to  an  endless  life  with  him  in  all  the 
future  ages  of  his  boundless  working. 


CREATIVE  DAYS  AND  THE  SABBATH. 

It  has  long  appeared  to  me,  and  I  have  elsewhere  endeavored 
to  illustrate  this  idea,'  that  the  long  creative  days  of  geology 
throw  a  most  important  light  on  the  institution  of  the  weekly 
Sabbath  and  its  continuance  as  the  Lord's  day.  If  it  is  true  that 
the  seventh  or  Sabbath  day  of  creation  still  continues,  and  was 
intended  to  be  a  day  of  rest  for  the  creator  and  his  intelligent 
creature  man,  we  find  in  this  a  substantial  reason  for  the  place 
of  the  Sabbath  in  the  Decalogue,  and  through  our  Lord's  decla- 
ration in  reply  to  the  Pharisees,  "  My  Father  worketh  hitherto 
and  I  work,"  and  the  argument  in  the  fourth  chapter  of  the 
Hebrews,  can  carry  it  forward  into  the  Christian  dispensation. 

At  first  sight  the  place  of  the  fourth  commandment  in  the 
Decalogue,  and  the  vast  importance  attached  to  this  law  by  the 
Hebrew  writers,  strikes  us  as  strange  and  anomalous.  The 
Sabbath  stands  as  the  sole  example  of  a  ritual  observance,  in 
those  "-ten  words,"  which  otherwise  mark  the  most  general 
moral  relations  of  man  to  God  and  to  his  fellow-men.  Farther, 
the  reason  given  seems  trivial.  If  it  is  meant  that  God  worked 
on  six  natural  days  and  rested  on  the  seventh,  the  question 
arises,  what  is  he  doing  on  subsequent  dSys?  Does  he  keep  up 
this  alternation  of  six  days'  work  and  one  day's  rest,  and  if  not. 
how  is  this  an  example  to  us?  If  it  is  argued  that  the  whole 
reason  of  God's  six  days'  work  and  seventh  t^iy's  rest  was  to  give 
an  example,  this  conveys  the  absurdity  of  doing  what  is  infi- 
nitely great  for  an  end  comparatively  insignificant,  and  which 
might  have  been  attained  by  a  command,  without  any  reason 
assigned.     But  let  us  now  suppose  that  when  God  rested  on  the 

'  "OriKiii  of  the  World,"  chap.  vi. 


CONTACT  BETWEEN  SCIENCE  AND   REVELATION.       589 


seventh  day  lie  entered  into  an  <xon  of  vast  duration,  intended 
to  be  distinguished  by  the  happy  Sabbatism  of  man  in  an 
Edenic  world,  and  in  which  every  day  would  have  been  a  Sab- 
bath ;  or  if  there  was  a  weekly  Sabbath,  it  would  have  been  but 
a  memorial  of  a  work  leading  to  a  perpetual  Sabbath  then 
enjoyed.  Let  us  farther  suppose  that  at  the  fall  of  man  the  ■ 
Sabbath-day  was  instituted,  or  obtained  a  new  significance  as 
a  memorial  of  an  Edenic  Sabbatism  lost,  and  also  as  a  memorial 
of  God's  promise  that  through  a  redeemer  it  would  be  restored. 
Then  the  Sabbath  becomes  the  central  point  of  all  religion,  the 
standing  and  perpetual  memorial  of  an  Eden  lost  and  a  paradise 
to  be  restored  by  the  coming  seed  of  the  woman.  The  com- 
mandment "  Remember  the  Sabbath-day"  called  upon  the 
Israelite  to  remember  the  fall  of  man,  to  remember  the  promise 
of  a  Saviour,  to  look  forward  to  a  future  Sabbatism  in  the 
reign  of  the  Redeemer.  It  is  thus  the  gospel  in  the  Decalogue, 
giving  vitality  to  the  whole,  and  is  most  appropriately  placed, 
and  with  a  more  full  explanation  than  any  other  command, 
between  the  laws  that  relate  to  God  and  the  laws  that  relate  to 
man.  I  have  elsewhere  attempted  to  show  that  in  this  light  the 
Sabbath  was  regarded  by  Moses  himself,  by  succeeding  prophets, 
by  our  Lord,  the  apostles,  and  the  primitive  c'-  .fch,'  and  that 
the  loss  of  this  great  truth  belongs  to  the  many  losses  of  the 
church  in  passing  through  the  dim  ages  before  the  reformation. 
If  the  investigations  of  science  into  the  long  aions  of  the  pre- 
adamite  earth  helps  us  10  regain  it  now,  let  us  not  be  ungrateful. 
The  argument  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews'  may  help  us 
to  understand  this,  and  it  is  the  more  valuable  that  it  is  not  an 
argument  about  the  Sabbath,  but  introduces  it  incidentally,  and 
that  it  seems  to  take  foV  granted  the  belief  in  a  long  or  olamic 
Sabbath  on  the  part  of  those  to  whom  it  is  addressed.  It  may 
be  freely  rendered  as  follows : 

"' For  God  hath  spoken  in  a  certain  place  (Gen.  2  :  2J  of  the  seventh 
day  in  this  wise—"  And  God  did  rest  on  the  seventh  day  from  all  his 
works;"  and  in  this  place  again— "They  shall  not  enter  into  my  rest"  (Ps. 
95  :  iij.  Seeing,  therefore,  it  still  remaineth  that  some  enter  therein,  and 
they  to  whom  it  (God's  Sabbatism)  was  first  proclaimed  entered  not  in. 
because  of  disobedience  (in  the  fall,  and  afterward  in  the  sin  of  the  Israel- 


Op.  tit. 


'^Chap.  iv.' 


Biamm- 


wmmmmmmmgmnmm. 


59° 


T//£  PRINCETON  REVIEW. 


ites  in  the  desert),  again  he  fixes  a  certain  day.  saying  in  David's  wntings. 
long  afteV  the  time  of  Joshua-"  T-day.  if  ye  hear  his  voice,  harden  not 
vour  hearts  "  For  if  Joshua  had  given  them  rest  in  Canaan,  he  would  not 
afterward  have  spolcen  of  another  day.  There  is  therefore  yet  reserved  a 
keeping  of  a  Sabbath  for  the  people  of  God.  For  he  that  is  entered  into 
his  rest  (that  is.  Jesus  Christ,  who  has  finished  his  work  and  entered  into 
his  rest  in  heaven),  he  himself  also  rested  from  his  own  works,  as  God  did 
from  his  own.     Let  us  therefore  earnestly  strive  to  enter  into  that  rest.' 

"  It  is  evident  that  in  this  passage  Ciod's  Sabbatism,  the  rest  intended 
for  man  in  Eden  and  for  Israel  in  Canaan,  Christ's  rest  in  heaven  after 
finishing  his  work,  and  the  final  heavenly  rest  of  Christ's  people,  are  all 
indefinite  periods  mutually  related,  and  cannot  possibly  be  natural  days. 

This  passage  farther  aids  us  in  comprehending  the  connection 
of  the  Lord's  day  with  the  Jewish  Sabbath.     If  the  latter  had 
a  reference  to  a  Sabbatism  lost  by  the  fall  and  restored  by  the 
Redeemer,  the  Son  of  man  must  be  "  Lord  of  the  Sabbath"  in 
the   sense   of    fumUing    and    realizing    its    prophetic    import. 
Therefore,  the  day  on  which  he  finished  his  work  and  entered 
into  his  rest  must  of  necessity  be  that  to  be  commemorated  by 
Christians,  until  the  time  when  the  return  of  Christ  shall  mau- 
gurate  that  final  and  eternal  Sabbatism  which  remains  to  his 
people.     Thus  the  Lord's  day  comes  to  occupy  the  same  im- 
portant place  formerly  occupied   by  the  Jewish  Sabbath.      It 
links  together  God's  creative  work  and  Christ's  work  of  redemp- 
tion •  the  Sabbatism  lost  in  the  fall  and  restored  in  the  Saviour; 
the  imperfect  state  of  the  militant  church,  still  having  only  a 
memorial  of  a  rest  to  come,  and  the  church  triumphant,  which 
will  enjoy  this  rest  forever.     If  the  Sabbath  that  carried  with 
it  the  mournful  memory  of  the  first  sin  was  holy, -much  more 
that  which  points  forward  to  a  heavenly  paradise.     If  the  obli- 
gation to  remember  it  was  to  the  Hebrew  equal  to  that  of  the 
most  binding  moral  duties,  still  more  must  the  Lord's  day  be  a 
day  to  be   remembered  by  the   Christian,  as  the   memorial  of 
Christ's  finished  work,  and  of  our  heirship  of  all  the  divine  ages, 
past,  present,  and  to  come.     Thus  we  see  that  the  moral  and 
spiritual  dignity  and  obligation  of  the  Lord's  day  rise  far  above 
those  of   the   Jewish    Sabbath,   and   we   can   understand   how 
naturally  the  apostles  and  primitive  Christians,  almost  without 
note  of  the  change,  transferred  their  allegiance  from  the  seventh 
to  the  first  day  of  the  week. 


COi\'TACr  BET  WEES   SCIESCE   AXD  REVELATIOX. 


591 


ANTEDILUVIANS. 

The  deluge  of  Noah  has  ceased  to  be  a  matter  solely  theo- 
logical or  dependent  on  the  veracity  of  Genesis.  It  has  now 
become  a  fact  of  ancient  Assyrian  history,  a  tradition  preserved 
by  many  and  various  races,  a  pluvial  or  diluvial  age,  or  time  of 
subsidence,  intervening  between  the  oldest  race  of  men  known 
to  geology  and  modern  times.  We  are  at  least  entitled,  con- 
jecturally,  to  identify  these  things,  and  through  means  of  these 
identifications  to  arrive  at  some  definite  conceptions  of  the  con- 
dition and  character  of  the  earliest  men,  whether  we  call  them 
the  Antediluvians  of  the  Bible  or  the  Palaeocosmic  or  Palaeo- 
lithic men  of  geology. 

The  Book  of  Genesis  traces  man  back  to  Eden,  whose  char- 
acteristics we  have  already  considered,  and  which  certainly  is 
placed  by  that  old  record,  as  by  the  Assyrian  genesis,  in  the  Eu- 
phratean  vallev,  whether  in  its  upper  table-lands  or  in  its  delta. 
From  this  Eden  man  was  expelled,  the  old  Aryan  traditions  say 
by  physical  deterioration— the  incoming,  perhaps,  of  a  glacial  age. 
The  Semitic  traditions,  on  the  other  hand,  refer  it  to  a  moral 
fall  and  a  judicial  visitation  of  God.     In  any  case  it  was  a  very 
real  evil,   involving    a    change    from    that  condition   of  happy 
abundance  and   freedom   from  physical  toil,  which  all  histories 
and  hypotheses   as  to   human   origin  must  assign  to  the  earli- 
est state  of  our  species,  to  a  condition  of  privation,  exposure, 
labor    struggle  for  existence  against   the   uncongenial   environ- 
ment'of  a  wilderness  world.     Such  new  conditions  of  existence 
must  have  tended  to  try  the  capabilities  and  endowments  of 
men.     Under  certain  circumstances,  and  when  not  too  severe, 
they  must  have  developed  energy,  inventiveness,  and  sagacity, 
and  thus  must  have  produced  a  physical  and  mental  improvement. 
Under  other  circumstances  they  must  have  had  a  deteriorating 
influence,  degrading  the  physical  powers  and  reducing  the  men- 
tal nature  almost  to  a  bestial  condition.     The  experience  of  our 
modern  world,  and  even  of  civilized  communities,  enables  us  too 
well  to  comprehend  these  opposite  effects.     In  any  case,  such 
struggle  was,  on  the  whole,  better  for  man  when  in  an  imperfect 
state.     Only  a  creature  perfectly  simple  and  harmless  morally, 
could  enjoy  with  advantage  the  privileges  of  an  Eden. 


593 


THE   rRINCETON  REVIEW. 


The  Bible  story,  however,  gives  us  a  gUmpsc  of  still  another 
and  unexpected  vicissitude.  The  human  family  at  a  very  early 
period  split  into  two  tribes.  One  of  these,  the  Scthida;,  simple, 
God-fearing,  conservative,  shepherds  and  soil-tillers ;  the  other, 
the  CninidcK,  active,  energetic,  godless,  city-builders  and  inventors. 
Among  the  Cainida;  sprang  up  another  division  into  citizen 
peoples,  dwelling  in  dense  communities,  practising  metallurgy 
and  other  arts,  inventing  musical  instruments,  and  otherwise 
advancing  in  material  civilization;  and  wandering  Jabalites — 
nomads  with  beasts  of  burden  and  movable  tents,  migrating 
widely  over  the  earth,  and  perhaps  locally  descending  to  the 
rudest  forms  of  human  life.  Thus  from  the  centre  of  Eden 
and  the  fall  sprang  three  diverse  lines  of  human  development. 

B'lt  a  time  came  when  these  lines  reacted  on  each  other. 
The  artisans  and  inventors  intermarried  with  the  simple  country 
folk.  The  nomadic  tribes  threw  themselves  in  invading  swarms 
on  the  settled  communities.  Mixed  races  arose,  and  wars,  con- 
quests, and  disturbances,  tending  to  limit  more  and  more  the 
areas  of  peace  and  simple  plenty,  and  to  make  more  and  more 
difficult  the  lives  of  those  who  sought  to  adhere  to  the  old 
Edenic  simplicity ;  until  this  was  well-nigh  rooted  out,  and  the 
earth  was  filled  with  violence.  In  the  midst  of  this  grew  up  a 
mixed  race  of  men,  strong  physically,  with  fierce  passions,  daring, 
adventurous,  and  cruel,  who  lorded  it  over  the  earth  and  deprived 
others  of  their  natural  rights  and  liberties — the  giants  and  men 
of  renown  of  antediluvian  times. 

Such,  according  to  the  Bible,  was  the  condition  of  the  later 
antediluvians,  and  in  this  was  the  reason  why  they  were  swept 
away  with  a  flood.  Before  this  catastrophe,  we  can  gather  from  the 
story,  there  must  have  been  great  progress  in  the  arts.  Intel- 
lects of  gigantic  power,  acting  through  the  course  of  exceedingly 
long  lives,  had  gained  great  mastery  over  nature,  and  had  turned 
this  to  practical  uses.  There  must  have  been  antediluvian  met- 
allurgists as  skilled  as  any  of  those  in  early  post-diluvian  times; 
engineers  and  architects  capable  of  building  cities,  pyramids,  and 
palaces,  and  artisans  who  could  have  built  triremes  equal  to  those 
of  the  Carthaginians.  At  the  same  time  there  must  have  been 
wild  outlying  tribes,  fierce  and  barbarous.  Farther,  the  state  of 
society  must  have  been  such  that  there  was  great  pressure  for 


CONTACT  BF.TWEF.y  SC/F.XCF.    A. YD   NFl'F/.ATWX.        595 


the  means  of  subsistence  in  tlie  more  densely  peopled  districts; 
and  as  agricultural  labor  was  probably  principally  manual,  and 
little  aided  by  machines  or  aninials,  and  as  the  primitive  fertility 
of  the  soil  must,  over  large  regions,  have  been  much  exhausted, 
we  can  understand  that  lament  of  Lamech  as  to  the  hardness  of 
subsistence  with  'vhich  he  precedes  his  hopeful  prophecy  of 
better  times  in  the  days  of  Noah.' 

Another  feature  of  the  antediluvian  time  was  its  godless  and 
materialistic  character.  This  is  quaintly  represented  in  some  of 
the  American  legends  of  the  deluge  by  the  idea  that  the  ante- 
diluvian men  were  incapable  of  thanking  the  gods  for  the  bene- 
fits they  received.  They  had,  in  short,  lost  the  beliefs  in  a  ruling 
divinity  and  a  promised  Saviour,  and  had  thrown  themselves 
wholly  into  a  materialistic  struggle  for  existence,  and  this  was 
the  reason  why  they  were  morally  and  spiritually  hopeless  and 
had  to  be  destroyed.  We  do  not  hear  of  any  idolatry  or  super- 
stition in  antff'il-jvian  times,  nor  of  the  lower  vices  of  the  more 
corrupt  and  degraded  races.  The  vices  of  the  antediluvians  were 
those  of  a  superior  race,  self-reliant,  ambitious,  and  selfish.  De- 
voting themselves  wholly  to  worldly  aims  and  to  the  promotion 
of  the  arts  of  life,  and  utilizing  to  the  utmost  the  bounties  of 
nature,  their  motto  was  "let  us  eat  and  drink,"  not  for  to-morrow 
we  die,  but  because  we  shall  live  long  in  our  enjoyments.  The 
inevitable  result  in  the  tyninny  (jf  the  strong  over  the  weak,  and 
the  rebellion  of  the  weak  against  the  string,  in  the  accumulation 
of  wealth  and  luxury  in  favored  spots,  and  in  the  desolation  of 
these  spots  by  the  violence  and  rapacity  of  rude  and  warlike 
tribes^  came  upon  them  to  the  full,  but  brought  no  repentance. 
Such  a  race,  to  whom  God  and  the  spiritual  world  had  become 
unthinkable,  to  whom  nothing  but  the  material  goods  of  life  had 
any  reality,  who  probably  scoffed  at  the  simple  beliefs  of  their 
ancestors  as  the  dreams  of  a  rude  age,  had  become  morally  irre- 
deemable, and  there  was  nothing  in  store  for  it  but  a  physical 
destruction. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  these  evils  must  have  been  greatly 
aggravated  if  the  life  of  antediluvian  man  was  prolonged  through 
centuries,  and  if  his  physical  and  mental  organization  were  of  a 


•  Genesis  5  :  2g. 


THE   Ph'fXCIlTOX  REVIEW. 
594 

correspondingly  powerful  and  enduring  chanictcr.  The  hard- 
ness of  heart  of  a  materialist  who  cannot  hope  to  survive  three- 
score and  ten  years  must  be  as  nothing  compared  with  that  of 

a  Methuselah. 

The  cataclysm  by  which  these  men  were  swept  away  may 
have  been  one  of  those  submersions  of  our  continents  which, 
locally  or  generally,  have  occurred  over  and  over  again,  almost 
countless  times,  in  the  geological  history  of  the  earth,  and  which, 
though  often  slow  and  gradual,  must  in  other  cases  have  been 
rapid,  perhaps  much  more  so  than  the  hundred  and  f^fty  years 
which  the  Bible  record  allows  us  to  assign  to  the  whole  period 
of  the  Noachic  catastrophe. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  those  ancient  cave-men  whose 
bones  testify  to  the  existence  of  man  in   Europe  before  the  last 
physical  changes  of  the  post-glacial  age,  and  while  many  mam- 
mals now  locally  or  wholly  extinct  still  lived  in  Europe,  present 
characters  such'  as  we  might  expect  to  find  at  least  in  the  ruder 
nomadic  tribes   of   the   antediluvian  men.      Their  large  brains, 
great  stature,  and  strong  bones  point  to  just  such  characters  as 
would  befit  the  giants  that  were  in  those  days.     It  is  farther  of 
interest  that  the  early  appearance  of  skill  in  the  arts  of  life  in  the 
valleys  of  the  Euphrates  and  Nile  in  post-diluvian  times,  points 
to  an  inheritance  of  antediluvian  arts  by  the  early  Hametic  or 
Turanian  nations,  and   is  scarcely  explicable  on  any  other  hy- 
pothesis.' ' 

It  is  a  question,  raised  by  certain  expressions  of  Scripture, 
whether  the  world  will  again  fall  inio  the  condition  in  which  it 
was  before  the  flood.  "As  it  was  in  the  days  of  Noah,"  we  are 
told,  so  shall  it  be  when  the  Son  of  man  comes  to  judgment. 
To  bring  the  world  into  such  a  state  it  would  require  that  it 
should  shake  off  all  the  superstitions,  fears,  and  religious  hopes 
which  now  afTect  it;  that  it  should  practically  cast  aside  all 
belief  in  God,  in  morality,  and  in  the  spiritual  nature  and  higher 
destiny  of  man ;  that  it  should  devote  itself  wholly  to  the  things 
that  belong  to  the  present  life,  and  in  the  pursuit  of  these  should 

'  Tyler,  in  his  address  to  the  anthropological  section  of  the  British  Association, 
represents  me  as  holding  that  the  PaU-eocosmic  men  and  the  deluge  which  swept 
them  away  were  contemporaneous  with  a  continuous  and  undisturbed  civdization 
in  Chaldea  and  Egypt.     This  is,  of  course,  an  error  on  his  part. 


CONTACT  in-TWr.EX   SC/KXCK   AX/y   R/-:J-Kl.ATfOX.        595 

be  influenced  by  nothin<,r  hit^her  than  a  selfish  expediency.     Then 
would  the  earth  a-ain  be  filled  with  violence,  and  again  would  it 
cry  unto   God   for  punishment,  and   again  would  he  say   that 
"his   spirit  should  no  longer  strive  with  men."  and  that  it  "^re- 
pented him  that   he    had  made  man    upon  the    earth."     Who 
shall    say    that    this    is    impossible?     On    the    contrary,   do    we 
not  see  in  the  materialistic  philosophy,  in  the  cold,  calculating 
policy,  the  profound  selfishness,  and  the  proud  self-confidence  of 
the  more  civilized  races  in  our  times,  indications  of  the  same 
spirit  which  was  in  the  antediluvians?     Should  it  come  to  pass 
that  this  spirit  should  again  altogether  prevail,  it  might  happen 
that  God,  who  has  so  long  patience  with  the  follies,  the  super- 
stitions, and  the  baser  appetites  of  humanity,  might  again  direct 
his  judgments  against  this  higher  and  more  stupendous  form  of 
iniquity,  and  as  the  earth  that  then  was  perished  by  water,  so 
that  which  is  now  might,  in  consideration  of  the  clearer  light  it 
has  abused  and  the  greater  privileges  it  has  despised,  be  visited 
with  fire  reserved  against  "the  day  of  judgment  and  perdition 
of  ungodlv  men,"  and  which  nature  can  in  many  ways  provide. 

I  have' said  that  such  a  catastrophe  as  the  deluge  of  Noah  is 
in  no  respect  incomprehensible  as  a  geological  phenomenon,  and 
were  we  bound  to  explain  it  by  natural  causes,  these  would  not 
be  hard  to   find.     The   terms   of  the   narrative   in   Genesis  well 
accord  with  a  movement  of  the  earth's  crust,  bringing  the  waters 
of  the  ocean   over  the  land,  and  at  'the  same  time  producing 
great  atmospheric  disturbances.     Such  movements  seem  to  have 
occurred  at  the  close  of  the  post-glacial  or  pahxocosmic  age,  and 
were  probably  connected   with    the  extinction  of    the  pahneo- 
cosmic  or  cave  men  of  Europe  and  of  the  larger  land  animals 
their  contemporaries  ;    and    these   movements  closed  the  later 
continental  period  of  Lyell,  and  left  the  European  land   perma- 
nently at  a  lower  level  than  formerly.     Movements  of  this  kmd 
have  been  supposed  by  geologists  to  be  very  slow  and  gradual ; 
but  there  is  no  certain  evidence  of  this,  since  such  movements  of 
the  land  as  have  occurred  in  historical  times  have  sometimes 
been  rapid  ;  and  there  are  many  geological  reasons  tending  to 
prove  that  this  was  the  case  with  that  which  closed  the  post- 
glacial age.      It  is  to  be  observed,  also,  that   the   narrative  in 
Genesis  does  not  appear  to>implya  very  sudden  catastrophe. 


596 


Till:    rRIXCElVX  REVIEW. 


1! 


There  is  nothin^f  to   prevent  us  from   supposing,'  that   the  sub- 
merL'eiice  of  the   land    was   proceeding  during  all   the    period  of 
Noah's   preaching,   and   the   actual   time   in    which     the   deluge  ■ 
covered  the  district  occupied  by  the  narrative  was  more  than  a 
year.     It   is   also  to  be  observed  that  the  narrative  in  Genesis 
l)urports  to  be  that   of  an   eye-witness.      He   notes   the  going 
into  the  ark,  the  closing  of  its  door,  the  first  floating  of  the  large 
ship  ;  then  its  drifting,  then  the  disappearance  of  visible  land,  and 
the  minimum  depth  of  fifteen  cubits,  probably  representing   the 
draft  of   water  of   the   ark.    Then   we   have   the   abating  of   the 
waters  with   an   intermittent  action,   going  and  returning,  the 
grounding  of   the  ark,  the  gradual  appearance  of  the  surround- 
ing hills,  the  disappearance  of  the  water,  and  finally  the  drying 
of  the  ground.     All  this,  if  historical   in   any  degree,  must   con- 
sist of  the  notes  of  an   eye-witness,   and   if   understood   in    this 
sense,  the  narrative  can  raise  n<j  tpiestion  as  to  the  absolute  uni- 
versality of   the   catastrophe,  since  the  whole   earth  of   the   nar- 
rator was    simply  his    visible   horizon.     This  will    also    remove 
much   of  the  discussion   as   to   the   animals   taken  into  the  ark, 
since  these  must  have  been  limited  to   the   fauna  of  the  district 
of  the   narrator,  and   even   within   this  the   lists  actually  given 
could    exclude    the    larger  carnivorous    animals.       Thus  there 
would  be  nothing  to  prevent  our  supposing,  on  the  one  hand, 
that  some    species   of  animals   became   altogether  extinct,  and 
that  the  whole  faun;e  of  vast  regions  not  reached  by  the  deluge 
remained  intact.     It  is  further  curious  that  the  narrative  of  the 
deluge  preserved  in  the  Assyrian    tablets,  like   that   of  Genesis, 
purports  to  be  the  testimony  of  a  witness,  and  indeed  of  the 
Assyrian  equivalent  of  Noah  himself. 

The  "  waters  of  Noah"  are  thus  coming  more  and  more 
within  the  cognizance  of  geology  and  arch.neology,  and  it  is 
more  than  probable  that  other  points  of  contact  than  those 
above  referred  to  may  erelong  develop  themselves. 


" 


•;* 


NATURAL  THEOLOGY. 


There  are  certain  schools  of  modern  science  and  philosophy 
which  afTect  contempt  for  the  doctrine  of  final  causes,  and  profess 
to  see  nothing  in  nature  that  points  to  an  unseen  Creator.     On 


cox /ACT   ni/nVEEX   SCIEXCE   AXn   RI.VEI.ATIOX.        597 


•'£ 


the  other  hand,  we  find  Mill,  in  one  of  liis  last  essays,  after  rejeet- 
ing  every   other  argument  for  the  existence  of  a  God,  adniit- 
tin^i  that  the  argument  from  design  in  the  universe  is  irresisti- 
ble, and  that   nature  does  testify  of  its  Maker.     There  can  be   • 
no  question   that   in  this   Mill  is  right,   if    for  no  other  reason 
than  that  old  and  well-known  one  that  mere  blind  chance  can- 
not be  conceived  of    as  capable  of    producing  an  orderly  sys- 
tem   of   things.     Ivirther.    there  can   be  no    question    that    the 
one   argument   for   a  (}od  which   is  convincing  to   Mill  is  also 
the   one,  and   the  only    one.  which   the    Holy    Scriptures  con- 
descend   to    refer    to.       They    habitually    take    the    existence 
of  God  for  granted,  as  something  not  needing  to  be  proven    to 
reasonable  minds,  but  they  reason  from  nature,  as.  for  instance, 
in  that  remarkable  passage  of  the  apostle  Paul  where  he  afTfirms 
that  to  the  heathen  the  "  power  and  divinity"  of  God  are  appa- 
rent from  the  things  which  he  has  made.     But  perhaps  there  is 
no  part  of  the  Bible  in  which  the  teaching  of  nature  with  refer- 
ence to  divine  things  is  more  fully  presented   than  in  the   Book 
of  Job,   and   I   am   inclined  to   think  that   not  a    few    even    of 
religious  men  fail  to  see  precisely  the  significance  of  the  address 
of  the  Almighty  to  Job,  in  the  concluding  chapter  of  that  book. 
Job  is  tortured  and  brought  near  to  death  by  severe  bodily 
disease.     His  friends  have  exhausted  ail  their  divinity  and  phi- 
Visophy  upon  him.  in   the  vain  effort   to  convince  him  that  he 
deserves  this  infliction  for  his  special  and  aggravated   sins.     At 
length   the   Almighty   intervenes  and   gives  the   final   decision. 
But  instead  of  discussing  the  ethical  and  theological  difficulties 
of  the  case,  he  enters  into  a  sublime  and  poetical  description  of 
nature.     He  speaks  of  the  heaven  above,  of  the   atmosphere,  its 
vapors  and  its  storms,  and  of  the  habits  and  powers  of  animals. 
In  short.  Job  is  treated  to  a  lecture  on  natural  history.      Yet 
this  instantaneously  effects  what   the  arguments,   of  the   friends 
have  altogether  failed  to   produce,   and    Job    humbles    himself 
before  God  in  contrition   and   repentance.     His  words  are   very 
remarkable  (Job  42  :  I -12) : 

"  I  know  that  thou  canst  do  all  things, 
From  thee  no  purpose  is  withheld  ; 
(Thou  hast  said)  '  Who  is  this  that  obscures  counsel  without  knowledge?" ' 


'Ch.  3S  ;  2. 


39 


S98 


rill:  rmxcETOX  revii-.w. 


% 


(And  I  Cfinft'ss  thai)  I  h;ivc  uttered  \vli:it  I  iiiukr^lonil  not, 
Things  too  hard  for  inc  which  I  know  tioi, 
Tkit  hear  ini;  now  and  I  will  s|ieak. 
(Thou  hasl  said)  '  I  will  dcinmid  of  iliee 
And  inform  thou  me.' ' 

I  have  heard  of  thee  with  the  hearing;  of  the  car, 
But  now  mine  eye  sceth  th-je  ; 
♦  Therefore  do  I  alihor  myself, 

And  repent  in  dust  and  ashes." 

What  docs  this  import  ?  Simply  that,  through  the  presenta- 
tion to  liim  of  God's  works,  Job  had  attained  a  new  view  of  (Jod 
and  of  liinisclf.  lie  had  not  considered  or  fairly  weij^hed  the  workl 
around  him  in  its  "randeur,  its  complexity,  its  unaccountable  re- 
lations, and  contrasted  it  with  his  own  little  sphere  of  thouo;ht 
and  work.  Had  he  done  so,  he  would,  like  Taut  in  later  times, 
have  said,  "  I  lath  not  the  potter  power  over  the  clay?"  God,  if 
really  the  architect  of  nature,  must  have  thoughts  and  plans 
altogether  beyond  our  comprehension.  Me  iiuist  be  absolute 
sovereign  of  all.  It  is  our  part  to  submit  with  patience  to  his 
dealing  with  us,  to  lean  upon  him  by  faith,  and  thus  to  carry 
this  almighty  power  with  us.  So  Job  can  now  be  vindicated' 
against  his  friends  who  have  taken  upon  them  to  explain  God's 
plans  and  have  misrepresented  them,  as  many  good  men  like 
them  arc  constantly  doing;  against  Satan,  who  cannot  con-ipre- 
hend  Job's  piety,  but  believes  it  to  be  mere  self-interest,  and 
who  now  sees  himself  foiled  and  Job  brought  into  still  greater 
prosperity,  which  can  now  be  safely  granted  to  him ;  while  by 
the  result  and  the  explanation  of  it  handed  down  to  our  time, 
Satan's  kingdom  lias  been  severely  shaken. 

I  would  put  this  case  of  Job  before  modern  Christians  in 
three  aspects,  (i)  Do  we  attach  enough  of  importance  to  the 
Gospel  in  nature,  as  vindicating  God's  so\ereignty  and  father- 
hood, and  preaching  submission,  humility,  and  faith  ?  Might  we 
not  here  take  a  lesson  from  the  Bible  itself  ^  (2)  May  there  not 
be  many  in  our  own  time  who,  like  Job,  have  "  heard  of  God 
with  the  hearing  of  the  ear"  but  have  not  seen  him  with  the  eye 
in  his  works  ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  are  there  not  many  who 
have  seen  the  works  without  seeing  the  Maker,  who  can  even 


•A 


Ch.  3S  ;  3  and  40  ;  7. 


co\/:irr  n/rnrr./.x  sn/-:xc/-:  .\xn  rev  1:1. a  now      599 

"  maf,Mlify  (Idd's  works  which  www  behold  "  without  kiiowin^^  the 
author  of  them  ?  Would  it  m.t  be  well  to  brin^j  more  to^^ether 
in  friendly  discussion  and  comparison  of  notes  those  who  thus 
look  on  only  one  side  of  the  >hieUl?  ('3)  Should  wc  not  bew.ire 
of  the  error  of  Job's  friends  in  misrepresenting,'  God's  plans,  and 
thereljy  denouncini,'  those  who  differ  from  us?  These  three  wise 
and  well-meanin^f  men  hail  iiature  all  around  them,  yet  they  clis- 
re^r;irded  its  teaching's,  and  ilwclt  on  old  saws  and  phii(»sopliic 
dogmas,  until  God  himself  had  to  briuL,'  out  the  whirlwind  and 
the  thunder-storm,  the  ostrich,  the  horse  and  the  hippopot.imus, 
t,o  teach  a  better  the()loj.;y.  The  Hook  of  Job  no  doubt  belongs 
to  a  very  ancient  time,  when  men  had  little  divine  revelation, 
perhaps  none  at  .ill  in  a  d.tinite  and  ilogmalic  form,  yet  there 
are  in  our  time  man\-  minds  even  cultured  minds,  as  ignorant 
of  revelation  as  Job's  contemporaries,  or  who,  if  not  ignorant  of 
it,  will  not  receive  it.  To  them  the  same  elementary  teaching 
may  afford  the  training  which  they  need, 


.., 


'11 11:  Kxonus. 

Modern  geographical  exploration  has  gone  over  the  ground 
traversed  by  ancient  expeditions,  or  famous  from  wars  and 
.sieges,  with  various  results  as  to  the  historical  credibility  of  the 
narrators  of  these  events.  Hible  history  has  often  anil  in  many 
places  been  subjected  to  this  test,  and  has  certainly  been  remark- 
ably vindicated  by  the  spade  and  the  measuring-line.  Hut  per- 
haps no  instance  of  this  is  more  remarkable  than  that  afforded 
by  the  magnificent  report  of  the  Ordnance  Survey  of  Sinai,  both 
because  of  the  positive  and  clear  character  of  its  results,  and  of 
the  antiquity  and  obscurity  of  the  events  to  which  it  relates. 

Some  three  thousand  years  ago,  according  to  a  history  pro- 
fcssedly  written  by  contemporaries,  the  Hebrew  people,  migrat- 
ing from  Egypt,  sojourned  in  this  inhospitable  region  for  forty 
years  on  their  way  to  Palestine.  No  one  in  the  intervening 
ages  is  known  to  have  followed  their  precise  rotile.  Arab  and 
Christian  traditions  have,  it  is  true,  ventured  to  fix  the  sites  of 
some  of  the  leading  events  of  tlie  march.  Travellers  have 
passed  hastily  over  portions  of  the  ground,  and  hav.;  given  to 
the  world  the  impressions  produced  on  their  minds  by  cr.id.-  ob- 


6oo 


77//:  Ph'i.vrF.'j'ox  RErirAv, 


scrvation  without  accurate  measurements.  The  results  arrived 
at  were  so  various  and  discordant  that  any  one  of  lialf  a  dozen 
theories  might  be  held  as  to  the  actual  route  and  its  more  im- 
portant station,  and  sceptics  might  be  pardoned  for  supposing 
that  the  writer  of  the  history  knew  less  of  the  ground  than 
many  of  the  subsequent  visitors.  Ikit  now  science  intervenes 
with  its  special  methods.  A  corps  of  trained  surveyors,  armed 
with  all  the  appliances  of  their  art,  and  prepared  to  make  obser- 
vations as  to  climate,  geology,  and  natural  history,  enter  the 
peninsula  at  the  point  where  Moses  is  represented  to  have 
entered  it,  and  prepare  to  follow  in  his  footsteps.  They  fir^jt 
settle  by  exiiaustive  investigation  the  crossing-place  of  the  fugi- 
tives near  the  present  town  of  Suez,  and  inform  us  of  the  precise 
circumstances  which  must  have  attended  that  event,  not  omit- 
tin<i  the  strong  east  wind  which  still  sometimes  blows  with 
terrific  force  down  the  gulf.  They  examine  the  wells  of  Moses 
and  test  their  water,  and  describe  the  structure  of  that  remark- 
able Sliiir,  or  wall  of  rock,  from  which  the  locality  derives  its 
Bible  name,  and  which  barred  the  way  of  the  Israelites  toward 
the  east  and  caused  them  to  make  a  long  di^toitr  to  the  south. 
They  proceed  southward  from  station^  to  station  and  well  to 
well,  noting  remarkable  coincidences  heretofore  overlooked,  with 
reference  to  the  characteristics  of  the  terrible  wilderness  of  Sin. 
the  various  ways  by  which  the  table-land  may  be  penetrated 
from  the  coa^,  ,  the  apparently  devious  course  of  the  Israelites, 
and  their  "  encampment  by  the  sea."  They  show  how  the  host 
must  have  turned  abruptly  to  the  east  by  Wady  Feiran,  and 
how  this  brought  them  into  conflict  with  the  Amalekites.  They 
explain  the  tactics  of  the  battle  of  Rephidim,  with  the  effect  of 
the  victory  in  opening  the  way  to  a  junction  with  Jethro  and 
the  Midianites,  and  to  the  great  and  well-watered  plain  of  Er 
Rahah  in  front  of  Mount  Sinai.  They  show  how  this  plain  and 
mountain  fulfil  all  the  conditions  of  the  narrative  of  the  giving 
of  the  Law,  and  explain  the  necessity  for  the  miraculous  supply 
of  water  before  the  fight  with  the  Amalekites,  and  the  supplies 
of  water  and  pasture  to  which  that  battle  gave  access. 

As  we  follow  the  laborious  investigations  of  the  surveyuig 
party,  and  note  the  number  and  complexity  of  the  undesigned 
agreements    between   their  observations  and    the    narrative    in 


•i~ 


1 


C0X7ACT  BET  WE  EX   SC/EXCE   AXD   REVELATION. 


60 1 


Exodus  and  Numbers,  as  we  study  their  account  of  the  geology, 
productions,  and  antiquities  of  the  country,  trace  its  topography 
on  ther  beautiful  maps  and  photographs,  and  weigh  their  calcu- 
lations as  to  the  supplies  of  water,  food,  and  pasturage  at  differ- 
ent stages  of  the  journey,  we  feel  that  the  venerable  narrative 
of  the  Pentateuch  must  be  the  testimony  of  a  veracious  eye- 
witness, and  all  the  learned  theories  as  to  a  late  authorship  and 
different  documents  disappear  like  mist.  The  writer  of  Exodus 
and  Numbers  had  no  idea  that  after  thirty  centuries  his  veracity 
was  to  be  subjected  to  the  test  of  a  scientific  survey;  but  he 
has,  nevertheless,  so  provided  for  this  that  even  his  obscurities, 
intperfect  explanations,  and  omissions  now  tend  to  his  vindica- 
tion. 

All  this  would  be  of  extreme  interest  were  the  Exodus 
mcrcl)-  an  old  .story,  like  the  Siege  of  Troy  or  the  tragical 
histor}-  el  Alyi  cnn:?.  lUit  it  is  much  more  than  this,  much  more 
than  even  a  national  movement  in  assertion  of  the  rights  of  the 
oppressed  and  of  the  sacredness  of  freedom.  The  Exodus  was 
a  new  departuiv  in  the  higher  life  of  humanity.  It  was  a  great 
revival  of  monotheistic  religion  at  a  time  when  it  seemed  likely 
lo  perish.  It  restored  the  hopes  of  a  coming  Saviour.  It  ini- 
tiated a  religious  literature  which  reached  back  to  the  creation, 
and  which  culminated  in  the  New  Testament.  The  roots  of  all 
that  is  most  valuable  in  religion  to-day  lie  in  the  K,xodus. 
rile iL fore,  it  is  of  the  highest  importance  to  know  whether  the 
history  of  this  event  preserved  to  us  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures 
is  ace  urate  and  trustworthy.  If  it  is  a  myth  or  a  historical 
novel,  or  even  a  well-meant  compilation  of  traditions  and  docu- 
ments by  an  (.ditor  living  long  after  the  event,  we  might  feel 
th.il  its  authority  in  all  respects  was  shaken.  As  it  is,  we  may 
rejoice  in  the  possession  of  at  least  one  true  and  carefully  written 
histor}',  however  we  may  regret  that  so  many  volumes  of 
learned  historical  criticism  have  been  reduced  to  wast«  paper. 
The  authors  ot  the  report  on  the  Sinai  Survey  make  no  preten- 
sions to  be  either  critics  or  expositors  of  the  Bible,  and  they  are 
prepared  to  s*  ate  what  they  see,  independently  of  the  conse- 
quences to  any  one.  Hence  it  is  most  instructive  to  observe 
how,  as  they  unsparingly  sweep  away  old  traditions,  and  the  con- 
jectures of  travellers  and  historians   ancient   and   modern,  the 


1 


6o2 


THE  riUXCETON  REVIEW. 


original  record  stands  in  all  its  integrity,  like  the  great  stones  of 
some  cromlech  from  which  men  have  dug  away  the  earth  under 
which  it  had  been  buried. 

To  those  who  have  placed  reliance  on  such  theories  of  the 
Pentateuch  as  those  of  Kalisch,  Kuenen,  or  Colenso,  the  disclo- 
sures of  the  Survey  of  Sinai  must  come  like  a  new  revelation. 
Henceforth  the  only  rational  theory  as  to  the  composition  of 
the  books  of  Exodus,  Leviticus,  and  Numbers,  is  that  they  are 
contemporary  journals  of  the  events  to  which  they  relate,  and 
that  they  have  not  been  subsequent!}-  revised  or  altered  even  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  explain  facts  obscure  to  any  one  except  a 
contemporary,  or  to  remove  seeming  contradictions  requiring 
knowledge  of  the  ground  for  their  solution.  It  is  even  startling 
to  find  that  the  apparent  omissions,  repetitions,  and  inconsisten- 
cies wiiich  have  been  ingeniously  employed  to  sustain  theories 
of  a  composite  and  late  authorship  become,  when  studied  on 
the  ground,  the  most  convincing  proofs  of  contemporary  author- 
ship and  the  absence  of  any  subsequent  revision.  Had  these 
writings  been  subjected  to  any  considerable  revision  between  the 
date  of  the  Exodus  and  that  &f  the  Ordnance  Survey,  they  could 
scarcely  have  failed  to  present  less  of  a  photographic  truthful- 
ness than  that  which  at  present  characterizes  them.  This  must 
at  least  be  the  theory  which  will  commend  itself  to  every  intelli- 
gent student  of  the  report  of  the  Sinai  Survey ;  and  it  is  to  be 
observed  that  the  facts  of  this  report  are  final  in  a  scientific 
point  of  view,  and  cannot  be  invalidated  by  any  critical  process, 
so  that,  in  so  far  as  the  central  books  of  the  Pentateuch  are  con- 
cerned, the  occupation  of  the  disintegrating  and  destructive 
critics  is  absolutely  gone,  or  can  be  valued  only  by  those  book- 
worms and  pedants  who  are  determined  to  shut  their  eyes 
against  scientific  evidence. 


liODV,    sni'I,,    AMI    S1'I]<1T. 

To  any  thoughtful  reader  of  the  New  Testament  'he  peculiar 
use  of  the  words  (ad/jf,)  "flesh,"  (i/'i'Xt/)  "soul  or  life," 
{Ttvavixa)  "  spirit,"  and  the  adjectives  derived  from  them,  must 
have  formed  a  subject  of  attention,  and  he  will  h:;ve  perceived 
that  the   uses  of  these  terms    are    somewhat   constant,  though 


■11    iplll)" 


COXTACT  RETWEEX   SCfEXCE  AND    pEVELATION.       603 

there  arc  of  course  some  exceptional  and  figurative  employ- 
ments of  them,  anci  cases  where  one  of  the  terms  implies 
another  not  mentioned."  He  may  have  regarded  this  clas- 
sification as  expressing  definite  ideas  of  the  writers  as  to  a 
three-fold  constitution  of  human  nature,  as  merely  arbitrary 
and  accidental,  or  as  conforming  to  a  classification  current  at  the 
time.  In  either  of  these  cases  he  may  have  felt  some  interest  in 
comparing  them  with  the  arrangements  of  modern  psychology. 
Yet  in  such  comparison  he  will  have  found  little  satisfaction, 
unless  he  turns  to  that  reaction  of  physiology  upon  mental 
science  which  is  so  influential  in  our  day ;  but  here,  if  I  mistake 
not,  he  will  find  some  curious  points  of  contact  between  modern 
science  and  the  biblical  view  of  humanity.  In  making  this 
comparison,  we  must  refer,  for  the  biblical  distinction  of  body, 
soul,  and  spirit,  and  for  the  conditions  under  which  an  eternal 
life  is  affirmed  to  be  possible  for  all  three,  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment itself,  and  to  the  numerous  theological  writers  who  have 
discussed  the  subject. 

Hitherto  it  has  been  somewhat  difficult  to  bring  this  biblical 
psychology,  if  it  mu)-  be  so  called,  into  harmony  with  the  mental 
science  of  the  schools.     Hut  any  one  who  has  read  the  article  by 
Ferrier  in  a  late  number  of  the  I'RIXCETOX  Rhvikw,  or  Calder- 
wood's  recent  work.  "The  Relations  of  Mind  and  Brain,'"  must 
be  aware  that  physiological  facts  relating  to  the  organism,  the 
"flesh"  of  the   New  Testament,  are  beginning  very  seriously  to 
modify  our  views.     We  now  know  that  the  gray  cellular  matter 
of  the  brain  constitutes  a  reservoir  of  sensory  and  motor  ener- 
gy, which  supplies   the   power  necessary  to  place  us  in  relation- 
with  things  without,  and  t<i  impress,  by  means  of  muscular  ef- 
fort, our  own  power  on  the  outer  world.      Inirther,  there  seems 
the  best   reason  to  believe  that  the  mass  of  the  brain  is  directly 
connected  with  sensation  and  motion,  though  there  seem  to  be 
means  of  regulation  and  co-operation  of  sensations  and  actions 
in  connection  with  the  front  and  back  portions  of  the  cerebral 
hemispheres.     There   are  facts  indicating  that  the  anterior  por- 
tions of  the  hemispheres  are  the   organs  of  a  certain  determin- 

'  We  have  also  the  formula,  "  Body  (f5r.i//.v),  soul,  ami  spirit"  (1  Thess.  5  :  23). 
'  London,  1879. 


6o4 


THE   PRIXCF.TON  REVIEW. 


ing  and  combining  property  of  the  nature  of  animal  intelli- 
gence, and  that  the  posterior  portions,  in  association  with  the 
sympathetic  nerve,  arc  connected  with  the  affections  and  pas- 
sions.' Now  all  this  belongs,  in  -the  first  instance,  to  living 
nerve-matter,  and  is  possessed  by  man  in  common  with  animals. 
They,  like  us,  can  perform  reflex  or  automatic  actions,  alto- 
gether or  partially  involuntary.  They,  like  us,  can  perceive  and 
reflect,  and  have  affections,  passions,  and  appetites.  Even  in 
animals  this  supposes  something  beyond  the  mere  organism, 
and  which  can  combine  and  compare  sensations  and  actions. 
This  is  the  animal  or  psychical  life,  which,  whatever  its  essen- 
tial nature,  is  something  above  and  beyond  mere  nerve-power, 
though  connected  with  it  and  acting  by  means  of  it.  But  in 
man  there  are  other  and  higher  powers,  determining  his  con- 
scious personality,  his  formation  of  general  principles,  his  ra- 
tional and  moral  volitions  and  self-restraints.  These  are  mani- 
festations of  a  higher  spiritual  nature,  which  constitutes  in  man 
the  "image  and  shadow  of  God." 

Thus  the  physiologist  may  fairly  claim,  not  for  protoplasm 
as  such,  but  for  the  living  organism,  all  the  merely  reflex  actions, 
as  well  as  the  appetites  and  desires,  and  much  that  belongs  to 
perception  and  ordinary  intelligence.  These  may  be  regarded 
as  bodily  and  psychical  in  the  narrow  sense.  But  the  higher 
regulating  powers  belong  to  a  spiritual  tlomain  into  which  he 
cannot  enter. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  here  that  even  those  who  seem 
most  desirous  to  limit  the  powers  of  man  to  mere  properties  of 
the  living  organism  are  prevented  by  their  own  consciousness, 
as  we'l  as  by  scientific  facts,  from  fully  committing  themselves 
to  this.  Tyndall  admits  a  "chasm"  "  intellectually  impassable" 
between  [)hysical  facts  and  human  consciousness.  Huxley's 
human  automaton  is  a  "  conscious  automaton,"  and  in  some  sense 
"endowed  with  free  will,"  and  he  decline's  to  admit  that  he  will 
ever  be  proved  to  be  only  "the  cunningest  of  nature's  clocks." 
Spencer  has  made  similar  admissions.     Allman,  in    his   British 


'  It  is  ;i  very  old  and  iti  si)rnc  respects  well-founded  luit'-v-  ''■■at  the  viscera  are 
connected  with  the  atTeciioiis.      We  now  know  soniethin;,  ^  ''>n  of  this  to 

the  sympathetic  nerve  system  and  to  the  jjosterior  portion  of  ti.  ill   lobes. 

Ferrier,  Calderwood,  and  very  recently  Bucke,  liave  discussed  these  pv,;;.tH. 


CONTACT  BETWEEN  SCIENCE  AND  REVELATION.       605 

Association  address,  distinctly  denies  that  consciousness  can  be 
physiologically  explained.  There  are,  it  is  true,  extreme  writers 
like  Buchner,  with  whom  matter  is  the  origin  and  essence  of  all 
that  exists,  but  their  strong  assertions  of  this,  being  destitute  oi 
proof,  can  scarcely  be  held  to  be  scientific. 

At  present  no  doubt   this  whole  subject  is  as  a  department 
of  science  somewhat  crude  and  rudimentary,  and  it  becomes   us 
to  speak  with  some  reserve  respecting  it,  but  the  drift  of  opinion 
is  in  the  direction  above  indicated.     It  has  become  evident  that 
the  more  recent  discoveries  as  to  the  functions  of   brain  w  ill  not 
warrant  the  extreme  views   of  materialists,  while   on  the   other 
hand  they  serve  to  correct  the  doctrines  of  those  who  have  run 
into   the  opposite   extreme   of  attaching   no  importance  to  the 
fleshly  organism  and  its  endowment  of  animal  life.     In  like  man- 
nci,  these  discoveries  arc  tending  to  establish  definite  boundaries 
between   the   domain  of  mere  automatism  and   that  of  rational 
will.'      In   so  far  as  these   results  are  attained,   we   are  drawn 
more  closely  to  that  middle  ground  occupied  b>'  the  New  Testa- 
ment writers,  and  which,  without    requiring  us  to   commit  our- 
selves to  any  new  hypotheses  or  technical  distinctions,  gives  a  ' 
fair  valuation  to  all  the  parts  of  the  composite   nature   of  man. 
The  practical  value  of  this  Bible   philosophy  is  well  known.     It 
relegates  to  their  proper  place  the  merely  somatic  and  psychical 
elements  of  our   nature,  admits  their   value    in   that   place,  and 
condemns  them  only  when  they  usurp  the  position  of  the  higher 
determining  powers.     It  seeks  to  place  these  last   in  their  true 
relation  to  our  fellow-men  and  to  God,  and  to  provide  for  their 
regulation  under  God"s  law  and  the  guidance  of  his  Spirit,  with 
the  object  of  securing  a  true  and  perfect   equilibrium  of  all  the 
parts  of  our  nature.  '  It  is  thus  enabled  to  hold  forth  a  prospect 
of  peace  and  happiness  to  body,  soul,  and  spirit,  and  to  point 
out  the  meaning  and   value  of  the  conflicts  which   rage  within 
the  man  in  our  present  imperfect  state.     This  practical  object, 


'  This  is  ably  argued  by  Calderwood  in  the  September  number  of  the  Prince- 
ton ;  and  while 'writing  this  I  have  received  the  address  of  Prof.  St.  George  Mivart 
before  the  Biological  Section  of  the  British  Association,  in  which  he  advocates  a 
threefold  distinction  into  Rational,  Animal,  and  Vegetable,  as  held  by  Aristotle,  and 
under  the  "rational"  would  apparently  recognize  a  higher  and  lower  grade  of 
psvchosis,  the  former  peculiar  to  man. 


miMtt^-^J^TT'^.-i 


6o6 


THE  PRINCETON  RFVIEIV. 


in  connection  with  the  mission  of  the  Saviour,  is  what  the  New 
Testament  has  in  view  ;  but  in  arriving  at  this,  it  has  undoubt- 
edly pointed  to  solutions  of  the  mysteries  of  our  nature  at 
which  science  and  philosophy  are  beginning  to  arrive  by  their 
own  paths  ;  just  as,  in  another  department,  the  Bible  has  shad- 
owed forth  the  great  principles  and  process  of  creation  in  ad- 
vance of  the  discoveries  of  geology. 

There  is  at  present  in  many  minds  a  strong  indisposition 
to  acknowledge  facts  of  this  class,  and  even  a  tendency  to  dis- 
parage and  treat  with  contempt  the  position  of  revelation 
relatively  to  science.  It  is,  hwwever,  not  difficult  to  see 
that  this  proceeds  partly  from  narrow  and  prejudiced  views, 
and  partly  from  antagonism  to  superstition  and  ecclesias- 
lical  practices  and  assumptions  supposed  to  be  supported  by 
the  Bible.  These  prejudices  it  is  to  be  hoped  may  disappear 
before  greater  light,  and  in  any  case  it  is  much  to  be  desired 
that  there  should  be  more  of  friendly  discussion  and  comparison 
between  the  theology  of  the  Bible  and  other  departments  of 
scientific  inquiry ;  for  we  must  not  forget  that  theology  is  itself 
a  science,  and  that  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible  admit  of  a  scientific 
treatment,  different  on  the  one  hand  from  captious  criticism,  and 
on  the  other  from  unreasoning  dogmatism. 

I  have  selected  a  few  e.\amples  from  various  departments  of 
scientific  investigation  to  show  that,  in  many  respects  not  usu- 
ually  considered,  modern  icientific  results  approach  to  doctrines 
of  revelation.  Such  examples  might  be  very  much  multiplied, 
and  others  might  be  found  more  striking  than  some  of  those 
above  referred  to.  Enough  has,  however,  been  said  to  show  that 
the  paths  of  science  and  revelation  are  at  least  not  divergent,  to 
suggest  the  necessity  of  removing  from  the  reading  of  the  Bible 
that  veil  of  mediaivalism  which  remains  on  so  many  minds,  to 
indicate  the  utility  of  fairly  comparing  the  new  science  with  the 
old  revelation,  and  above  all  to  vindicate  the  fundamental  unity 
and  harmony  of  all  truth,  whether  natural  or  spiritual,  whether 
discovered  by  man  or  revealed  by  God. 

John  W.  Dawson. 


' 


The  foUmving  articles  arc  publislu-ti  from  the  office  of  ihi> 
PRINCE  TO X  RE  I 'h-:  IV,  37  Par/.-  Ptna.  New  York, 
and  can  be  obtained  from  all  Booksellers  and  Newsdealers  at  Five  Cents 
each  ; 

I.  LOCAL  GOVERNMENT:    AT    HOME   AND    ABROAD,     July, '79. 

ROBERT   P.  PORTER,  Esq.,  Chicago. 

3.     THE    F'ULPIT  AND    I'OPULAR    SKEPTICISM,  .    Mar., '79. 

Rev.  PHILLIPS   BROOKS,  D.D.,  Boston. 

3.  THE   RIGHTS   AND    DUTIES    OF    SCIENCE,    .        .         .   Nov., '78. 

Principal  DAWSON,  F.R.S.,  D.C.L.,  McGill  University,  Montreal. 

4.  FORCE,   LAW,  AND    DESIGN Mav.  '79. 

President  PORTER,   D.D.,   LL.D.,  Yale  College. 

5.  AMERICAN    ART;    ITS    PROGRESS    AND    PROSPECTS,   May, '78. 

JOHN    F.   WEIR,  N.A.,  School  of  Fine  Arts,  Yale  College. 

6.  FINAL  CAUSE:    M.  JANET  AND  PROF.  NEWCOMB,   .  Mar., '79. 

President  McCOSH,   D.D.,  LL.D.,  Prince'on  College. 

7.  ENGLAND  AND  IIER  COLONIES May, '78. 

JAMES  ANTHONY  FROUDE,   D.C.L..   London. 

8.  CLASSICS  AND  COLLEGES July, '78. 

Prof.   B.  L.  GILDERSLEEVE,   LL.D.,  Johns  Hopkins  University. 

9.  THE  ANGLO-CATHOLIC    MOVEMENT Sept., '78. 

The  Right  Rev.  the  LORD  BISHOP  OF  GLOUCESTER  AND  BRISTOL. 

ic.     MAN'S  PLACE  IN  NATURE, Nov., '78. 

Prof.  JOSEPH  LE  CONTE,  LL.D..  Umverilty  of  California. 

II.  THE  AIM   OF  POETRY, Sept., '78. 

Principal  SHAIRP,   D.C.L.,   University  of  St.  Andrews. 

12.  THE  IDEA  OF  CAUSE, May,  '79. 

Prof.   FRANCIS  BOWEN,  Harvard  Collece. 

13.  MUSIC   AND   WORSHIP July, '79. 

President  POTTER,   D.D.,  LL.D.,  Union  College. 

14.  NATIONAL  MORALITY Nov.. '78- 

EDWARD  A.  FREEMAN,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  England. 

15.  THE   EUROPEAN    EQUILIBRIUM Nov.,  "78. 

THEODORE  D.  WOOLSEY,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Ex-President  ot  Yale  College- 


16.     CHRISTL'^NITY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.      . 
PHILIP  SCHAFF,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Union  Theol.  Seminary. 


.  Sept.,  '79 


17.     POINTS     OF     CONTACT     BETWEEN      SCIENCE     AND 

REVELATION, Nov.,  '79. 

Principal  DAWSON,  D.C.L.,  F.R.S.,  Montreal. 


